The invention relates to a wound support for use in the vacuum therapy of wounds, wherein the wound support can be disposed in its intended use in a wound space underneath a vacuum dressing sealing the wound space with respect to the atmosphere in an essentially vacuum-tight manner, and wherein the wound space can communicate with a suction tube to which a vacuum can be applied through an opening in the vacuum dressing, wherein the wound support comprises a flexibly compliant foamed material. Wound supports for use in the vacuum therapy of wounds have been previously described in e.g. WO 2004/037334 and WO 2010/033272.
The importance of the vacuum therapy of wounds, in particular, of wounds that are deep and whose healing is therefore problematic, has recently grown. Vacuum therapy means that a region of the body or wound that would otherwise be exposed to the atmosphere is pressure-tightly and vacuum-tightly sealed against the environment, that is, the atmosphere in which we live and breathe, by means to be described in more detail below, wherein a pressure that is reduced with respect to atmospheric pressure in a manner still to be described, which is therefore negative pressure with respect to the atmosphere, can be applied and continuously maintained within the sealed wound space. Where mention is made of a vacuum in the area described here, this refers to a pressure range of typically between 0 and 250 mm Hg (mm of mercury) below ambient atmospheric pressure. It has been shown that this is conducive to wound healing. Vacuum-tight sealing can be achieved with a vacuum dressing that, for example, can comprise a pressure-tight or vacuum-tight film layer, which is typically adhesively bonded to an intact region of the body surrounding the wound, thus providing a tight seal. To supply vacuum to the wound space and maintain it there, from a device for producing a vacuum, that is, a vacuum pump in the broadest sense, in the case of the systems stated here for the vacuum therapy of wounds, conduits can be used to which a vacuum is applied that act in conjunction with the vacuum dressing by means of a connecting device to apply a vacuum on or in the wound space.
The objective of this invention is to improve a wound support of the type described above so that it can be used for a broader range of tasks, in particular, for instillation therapy.